good evening from new york, major breaking news tonight from the campaign trail, virginia senator tim kaine has been selected hillary clinton's vice presidential pick, that broke while we were on the air at 8:00. here is how kaine voted for trade promotion authority, which is different from -- oh, wait. we got -- there you go, breaking news. nbc news can now announce that tim kaine will be the vice presidential nominee for the democratic party. that is now confirmed by nbc news. we can announce to you right now at this moment the virginia senator, one-time governor, one-time mayor of richmond, tim kaine will be the vice presidential nominee for hillary clinton. so it is official now, chris. >> well, it's a big deal and i think that this ticket is going to work. i think that it's because of what happened last week that hillary clinton felt very comfortable in picking the person she wanted to pick. and i think that's because she

believed that the center is now wide open for her to win a substantial victory, a big victory in the fall because trump is not really doing that well even as of last night at midnight, really hasn't gone into the center politically. she can grab it back from him. she can win big. she can maybe win 55% or more in the popular vote. and this guy is going to help her do it. she knows she doesn't need to go to the hard left. she's not perilous in her choice. she got to pick the guy she's comfortable with. >> chris matthews, thank you so much. >> congratulations for winning the derby. >> joining me now, msnbc's joy reid, the host of "a.m. joy" and ruth coniff, editor in chief of the progressive magazine. ruth, let me get your reaction first. you were a sanders supporter. i think of you as someone who's in that sanders wing of the party, particularly on stuff like wall street and trade. and there was a lot of skepticism towards kaine. what's your reaction? >> well, first i have to say i'm

not officially a sanders supporter, i'm not a sanders surrogate, i'm not affiliated with the campaign, i'm a magazine editor. but my politics are the progressive politics and the progressive magazine's readership, we're big enthusiasts for sanders. my reaction is the exact opposite of chris matthews. the fact that kaine is an establishment guy is not going to excite people who voted for bernie sanders. and it's just a sign that hillary does not feel like she has to do anything for the progressive wing of the party. that's unfortunate. you've got tim kaine who just in the last week wrote a couple of letters reassuring the financial industry that he joined with other senators in saying that they should get a break on regulation. that regional banks should get a bank, larger banks should get a bank, not related to the fact that capital one is in his district. in a year that trade is such a big issue and we heard so much about it last week in cleveland, you know, this is a guy who's for the tpp and he is for fast track authority for trade deals. so this is not a move of any

kind towards the left. you know, it's true that in washington that probably feels comfortable and it feels comfortable to hillary who's a cautious politician, but there are all these voters out there and you've got to energize them. this is not an energizing pick. >> ruth and joy, stand by for a second. joining me now on the phone is the governor of virginia, terry mcauliffe. governor, your reaction to the man who once held your office and your current home state senator, tim kaine, being chosen. >> chris, i've got to tell you, we are so fired up here in virginia. tim is a great pick. he embodies the values. he has been a moral progressive his whole life. you look at his whole history. he was a great mayor here, great lieutenant governor, great governor and he's been a great united states senator and he'll fight for folks. that's what this man has done his whole life. it is really a great pick for hillary. he can reach out to so many different communities. he's got 100% rating, as you know, from planned parenthood.

he has been a huge supporter of lgbt rights. he has been a great partner in washington for me as governor to work to try to get the dangerous guns out of the hands of individuals. so i couldn't be more excited here in virginia. it also helps us make sure that virginia, which is probably one of the top three swing states is going to be a blue state, it's going to be a clinton-kaine state this november. >> governor, i want to ask you about him substantively, but first let me ask you this. you now are in a key position if kaine were to join the ticket, which we believe he will, and if that ticket were to win because that seat is vacated. walk us briefly through what would happen next and what kind of power you would have. >> well, i would appoint his successor. obviously i'm going to appoint someone who's going to continue on what we've tried to do to build the economy here in virginia, to fight, protect. i just had to, as you know, vetoed a bill to defund planned

parenthood. we have been out front to fight to get the guns out of the hands of dangerous folks. i'll appoint someone who will continue on in that position. i just announced today a 3.7% unemployment rate, the lowest of any state in the southeast. we're open and welcoming to everyone and we're going to continue on. >> all right. governor mcauliffe, are you still there? we lost you for a second. all right. i think we lost governor mcauliffe there. joining us now, chuck todd, moderator of "meet the press," political director for nbc news. chuck, to the extent you know it, can you take us through the thinking in clinton world on this pick? >> well, this is the combination of call it there is certainly some campaign angle to it. sure, he's from virginia. but this is a governing pick and it's a comfort pick. you know, it's interesting here, the more remarkable thing about this pick is it was probably the

most speculated on pick and the most presumed idea as her running mate before she ever announced, right. the idea of tim kaine as the most likely finalist of the one or two was sitting there when this campaign started. usually when whoever is being floated at the beginning never lasts when it comes. >> right. >> i think that says a lot that he got through this process. but, you know, in demeanor, they're very similar. and that's my understanding where a comfort level was found. which is they're very just -- there is a similar -- remember, he was born and raised in the midwest. she was born and raised in the midwest. they have that same demeanor and that's the comfort level that she got. >> you and he had a very funny exchange about sort of his, quote, boringness a little while back. control room, if you could queue that up, i think we have that. andrea mitchell i think has some new reporting on the background behind this decision that happened. andrea, what have you got?

>> let me give you a bit of a tick-tack that we got from a clinton aide. first of all, they met a week ago thursday, just after we all covered tim kaine and hillary clinton at annandale. they met for 90 minutes that night at her home at white haven right off massachusetts avenue in d.c. then on saturday, the clinton and kaine families came together at that -- at the home in d.c., so it was tim kaine and his wife, also mark and chelsea and bill clinton came and they had lunch and talked about a lot of things. so this is the only candidate whom she met with -- whom she had met with twice. this process i'm told started all the way back in april when jon podesta brought bienders of

almost 30 possible candidates all put together and carried in a dwayne reed grocery bag. how's that for a little detail from the campaign aides. she started culling through them. she decided finally that what she really wanted was a partner, someone she wanted to see every day for the next four or they hope eight years if they are elected and re-elected, someone that could be a partner in governing. they're going to push back very hard against criticism that he's not progressive. they point to his fighting for gun safety, his remarks after virginia tech when he was the governor. also what he did when he first got out of harvard law school and worked for anti-poverty law and the civil rights movement. going all the way back they could also speak about what he did in honduras where he ran a spanish language school as a missionary, so they have a lot of talking points to push back criticism from some of the progressive part of the democratic party that he is not progressive enough.

and as you know, he's going to be -- they're appearing here in miami in florida, further south from where we are now in tampa, with hillary clinton for the first time as a campaign ticket tomorrow, sometime midday on saturday. chris. >> andrea, thank you for that. chuck, to andrea's point and to something ruth coniff said at the top, substantively to me the most interesting aspect to me is trade. it has become such a lightning rod in this campaign. >> it sure has. >> it is something that i think against any of the predictions of any political observer, the last three candidates in the race, bernie sanders, hillary clinton and donald trump are all opposed to tpp. you've now got tim kaine on the ticket who did vote for trade promotion authority. it does look like there's a little daylight now in terms of the positions there and also in terms of trump wanting to hammer on this as a key theme. >> look, i think he is going to hammer on it. and the fact is, i don't think hillary clinton was ever clean

on it. her opposition has always been hard to accept because of how many different ways she praised it and sold it as secretary of state. she came up, well, i didn't -- it doesn't matter. it's very -- so i don't think it was ever a good issue for her anyway. i think what the kaine pick will do if you're trump is you say, aha, see, she's not that committed to being against tpp, you can't trust her because she picked a pro-tpp senator. but it's hard, there was not many people on that short list that wasn't in favor of tpp other than really elizabeth warren. most of the folks that were on the list, because most of the democratic party of the rising stars, barack obama worked really hard to get them to support this, including tom perez, who was one of the progressive folks. and one of the things you ought to know is most of the time, it wasn't that long ago, especially in virginia, and this is where

progressives are going to nitpick at kaine a little bit, it wasn't that long ago in virginia if you were a democrat, you really had to run to the middle. run to the middle on guns. i remember the first time tim kaine ran for governor, they bragged about being pro-life. he has amended that to say he's personally pro-life but has always been in favor of keeping all the laws that are on the books and access to abortion and things like that. but the very recent centrist nature of virginia is something, you know, whether it's on the gun issue, whether it's on abortion and trade is another one, being it's a very pro business state, i think that's where the left could start picking at kaine a little bit. but i tell you, it would be nitpicks at this point and i think that's what the clinton campaign is gambling on. >> and also there's a question too strategically, sherrod brown is another name that was

mentioned that was against tpp but he was in a state with a republican governor. there's a real question about whether some of the people that were viewed as progressive champions, particularly elizabeth warren and sherrod brown would be silenced as vice presidential picks or should democrats take the majority. they're going to have pretty powerful roles in shaping legislation. it's unclear whether it would be a net benefit for the sanders wing of the party to take people like that and put them in the naval observatory and have them be sort of under the control of the administration. >> no, i think -- look, i think it's a fair point. i think you bring up what progressives ought to be thinking about, which is elizabeth warren and sherrod brown, if there is a democratic senate, they might have a lot of power. bernie sanders too as committee chairs in another senate, and they can put pressure on a democratic white house on an issue like trade in a way that if they were sitting at the naval observatory, you're right. and it's funny, there's one big

issue that i think is going to be an interesting test for kaine and the clinton relationship. tim kaine probably more than any other democrat, and he works with a couple of republicans on this issue, has been desperately trying to get a new war authorization written. and he has been a believer that there's too much executive power when it comes to these decisions. that the legislative branch has essentially abdicated its ability here. does he as vice president, somebody sitting in that national security council meeting, is he going to then tell madam president, you need to take that to congress. >> he has been quite outspoken but when people move from the article one section of our government to the article two, sometimes they have a change of view. chuck todd, thank you very much for coming by. all right, lots of big news happening today. we got sort of the first day of the general election, right? we got a nominee on the republican side. we now know all four people that

will be on the ballot for the two major parties. tim kaine just announced by hillary clinton's campaign as the vice presidential nominee. we'll have much more coverage of everything going on today in just a little bit, so don't go anywhere. ♪ ♪ it's easy to love your laxative when that lax loves your body back. only miralax hydrates, eases and softens to unblock naturally, so you have peace of mind from start to finish. love your laxative. miralax. hello welcome to holiday inn. running our own business, we've been traveling a lot. a hotel looking to help small businesses succeed is incredible. thank you. holiday inn is an extension of our team. book your next journey at holidayinn.com thank you. holiday inn is an extension of our team. don't you dare follow your dreams. think big. or demand your own space. don't you dare leave it all behind.

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it is such a great treat for me to be back here and to have this chance to appear with your great senator, a former governor, a former mayor of richmond, tim kaine. i appreciate so much the leadership that he has shown for this state, and now he is doing the same in the congress. >> hillary clinton appearing just a few weeks ago with tim kaine at a joint event. they'll be appearing tomorrow, of course, in miami for their first joint event as the

presidential and vice presidential nominee of the democratic party. joining me now, katherine rampel. sam cedar, and joy reid, host of "a.m. joy." what do you make of the pick in terms of what it says about this party, this coalition as it heads into the dnc in philadelphia? >> i mean i think -- well, i think it is clinton -- i mean -- >> that was an amazing, amazing reaction to tim kaine news. >> well, i think it's underwhelming on some level and i think that it indicates that their assessment is that they want to do no harm. and i think it's probably -- i think there's a decent argument that there could be a missed opportunity here, but i think they just wanted to play it safe, and it seems like that in and of itself is not necessarily the safe play. >> yeah, i do think also,

katherine, i do think there is some -- and i can't tell if this is getting more conservative as i get older or it's just because of donald trump, but i have -- like experience does matter increasingly to the way that i think about this. i think particularly because the republican party is on this thing that no one has done in 76 years, which is nominate someone for the highest office in the land who has no experience in public service or politics. so once you look at the field there were some names being batted around who i really like ideologically or personally or respect incredibly, but who don't -- you know, he does sort of have this breadth of experience that is relatively rare to find in someone who has done all the different things he's done. >> that's true. and i think what -- most of all what this says is that hillary's campaign made the calculation that they don't really need to make a play for the left. the play that they need to make is for the rockefeller republicans, the people who are more moderate, who are maybe

turned off by trump, who could hold their nose and vote for hillary plus someone who was seen as a moderate democrat but maybe not hillary plus someone who was more left wing. >> joy, i'm not even sure it's that proactive. i think to sam's point, this is a campaign that i think we will see by and large will look like a football team with a very good defense up by a touchdown in the fourth quarter for the next three months. they were not going to throw the ball, they are not going to -- they are going to try to not turn it over and try to shut down the other team's offense and get this win. and i really think that's the kind of strategy you're going to see from this campaign. >> yeah, there will be no reverses, there will be no flea flickers, this is going to be very, very safe. yeah, i agree with you. i described it as a pick. she wanted to pick tim kaine

from the very beginning. she was listening to all the other arguments to go for somebody more exciting to the left, to go someone that would excite latinos or african-americans, but in the end it's her asserting this is what i want to do. this does merge obama world and clinton world because it's terry mcauliffe getting his guy but also barack obama having sort of a seat in the administration should they win, because kaine is definitely an obama guy. he was with obama over hillary in 2008, so i think that's important. and when you have a chaos candidate on the other side, it isn't insane to say we'll go with sunny and nice. somebody who's optimistic and can really help in virginia, can probably do some good in places like colorado, where you have suburban white voters who may be tempted to go with trump, but when you talk about suburban white women, you want somebody safe, you want somebody comfortable. he can also campaign for her in those suburban parts of where i am, in philadelphia. you can send him to those places. if he locks in virginia, that in

and of itself makes him sglaubl politically, he's quite popular in virginia. if you go for someone with the state play, you have to get someone who is popular in that state and he is quite popular. you've also got the situation where unlike sherrod brown in ohio, who from a political perspective was a perfect venn diagram. >> he doesn't have a democratic governor in ohio. >> so you've got sherrod brown who has experience, he was a hillary clinton supporter, he is liked within the party, he's not seen as some pain in the butt in the caucus, but he also has this tremendous credibility among progressives. he's got a republican governor. elizabeth warren had a republican governor. that is a nontrivial thing to consider, given the fact that there's going to be a window, if they win the majority and win the white house to get stuff done that first year. >> there's two things. one is i think that's right.

i think if the idea that they're up by a touchdown and they can just, you know, whatever you want to use the metaphor, basketball, four corners type of situation, or whether or not they needed to be more aggressive. i guess we'll find out. and more aggressive means we want a pick that will motivate different constituencies that certainly probably wouldn't vote for trump but might not be coming out in the numbers that we want them to, right? latinos and progressives are not going to vote for trump, i think, in major numbers. but are they -- how motivated are they to get to the polls? >> and will there be fall-off. are there marginal voters who are not enthused enough to come and vote. >> and i will also say too that trump attacking let's say just hypothetically like a tom perez is a much harder thing for trump to do than attacking a tim kaine. now -- >> exactly. >> this is sort of like if you want to set up opportunities for donald trump to expose himself,

this doesn't do that. >> opportunities or traps as you might say. >> and it's also to me -- >> joy, go ahead. >> no, i was going to say and it also -- i think that is a brilliant point and i started to have this thought that maybe they are going to fake us out and pick tom perez for exactly the reason that you heard, that he would be very difficult to attack. the other thing is this also is the clintons being clintons and going back to the same formula that you always go to the middle and try to go after white voters. you always go after the safe middle, the undecided independents. it's like a tic that democrats have and it does leave out people of color and younger people. it doesn't speak to them. >> i think there is a lot to them. it can be engrained. i do think that the way that they have run this campaign up until this point has not shown very much of that. in fact i've been -- it's been somewhat head snapping if you particularly came of age during a certain period of democratic politics, a certain period of clinton politics to watch them fully recognize the fact that

they are trying to win with the obama majority. this does feel like the kind of political move that is not the way that they have been conducting. >> it doesn't seem like they're turning off voters of color or younger voters or progressives so much as not energizing them. >> right. or not explicitly seeing them as constituencies that need to be sort of reached out to through this very important signaling choice, right? >> because in many respects that's what it is, right? the choice is -- there's really two issues. can this person step in if need be and be president, and the other is there's not a lot of data that this moves the needle. but in traditional elections. but we've never seen an election where you have two candidates at the top of the ticket who are this disliked. >> i do think sometimes people on the outside of the process think of it much more in political terms than people inside the process do. because people inside the process -- well, also something horrible might happen and the fate of the country could be in their hands and that's no small

thing. thank you very much. coming up, much more on the clinton vp announcement just after the break. stay with us. ♪ take on any road with intuitive all-wheel drive. the nissan rogue, murano and pathfinder. now get 0% apr for 72 months, plus $500 bonus cash. ♪

a lot of people are writing about you right now in american politics, and there seems to be a theme. >> don't believe the hype. don't believe the hype. >> kaine is as boring as he is safe. kaine is also considered kind of, well, boring after they talk about he has a deep resume, well tested political skills but he's not anybody's idea of exploding volcano of charisma. you look an exploding volcano of charisma. are these critiques or compliments to you? >> i mean they're true, i am

boring. >> okay. >> but, you know, boring is the fastest growing demographic in this country. >> joining me now, democratic representative jerry connelly of virginia, long-time close friend of tim kaine who we just learned is going to be the vice presidential nominee for the democratic party. what do you to that as someone who knows tim kaine quite well to folks in the democratic party who look at this pick and are going like this. what do you want to tell them? >> i guess i would start by saying if you watched the dystopian circus that was cleveland, how much more excitement do you want? i think steady as she goes, policy wonk and integrity in the partnership, somebody who is the most honorable person i think i've ever known in politics, i'll take my chances with that if that's called boring. >> talk more about that because i have to say this is something i've talked to people throughout the years that have worked closely with tim kaine and sort

of independent of where his politics fall in the spectrum of the democratic coalition, what i've heard from those people is he is extremely respected by people that work both for him and with him. he has a very good reputation and that is definitely not true of all politicians, some of whose reputations are quite terrible behind closed doors. he is definitely not one of those people. >> he is a kind perpendicular, an incredibly reflective person. he respects other points of view genuinely and wants to hear them. he is decisive. he's not indecisive. and all of those qualities should never be mistaken for weakness, political weakness, because i can tell you here in virginia, he has dispatched some republican titans, including former senator george allen and his opponent to the gubernatorial race, jerry kilgore. these were considered giants in the republican party. and with great skill and

dispatch, he put them away. >> he's also -- you know, he's also run -- he also has an interesting sort of spectrum of government experience. he was the mayor of a city, he was the governor of a state and now he's also served legislatively and that's a relatively rare combination. >> you're exactly right, chris. and i come from local government too. we were both in local government together and kind of moved up in virginia politics. you know, local government is one of the most important levels of government because you've actually got to produce. and the accountability is absolute. we know whether you did it or not. we know whether you failed or succeeded. and likewise being governor is a managerial ceo-like kind of position. i think that brings a wealth of experience to the nomination for vice president that hillary clinton will benefit from. >> my colleague, chuck todd, talked about this and it's something that will come up. since you've known him for a while, i want you to talk about this. he is a fairly devout catholic.

he has in the past he described himself as a pro-life catholic. he has -- his position since he became a senator and i think actually probably while governor was that he personally opposes abortion, but he supports abortion rights. he supports roe and his voting record with respect to organizations like planned parenthood is quite good. how do you understand that as a trajectory as a position? >> you know, when he was running for governor, we actually had a dinner i hosted at my home. i'm also catholic. and we talked about these issues, because the bigger issue in that campaign was his position on the death penalty. and basically what he articulated was the john kennedy explanation to protestant ministers down in texas. i may be catholic, but when i take that oath of office, i'm the governor of the state and i uphold the laws of the governor of the state. what my personal views may be or those of my church are not the views that will guide me in my

public responsibilities. and if you look at tim's record, there's not a scintilla of a hint that he has ever veered from that. there's nothing squishy about his record on reproductive rights. >> you also mentioned that he's opposed to the death penalty. he also was a civil rights lawyer and did some criminal defense work as well. in fact his opposition to the death penalty was an issue he was attacked for politically on the right quite intensely, that he managed to overcome in that gubernatorial race. representative jerry connelly of virginia, friend of the newly announced vice presidential nominee for the democratic party, tim kaine, jerry connelly, thanks a lot. >> thank you, chris. i want to bring joy reid and ruth coniff back in. joy, your reaction to what you've heard. >> okay. so, chris, i'm going to start by giving you the positives. i'll go right to the positive stuff first. i think the clinton camp looking at that dystopian sort of circus

that we just saw in cleveland, they looked at that presentation, they looked at some of the first three days and the fourth day with the chaos with ted cruz and then that speech that was so dark and sort of -- i don't know, this world view of the united states as this hellscape and they said, okay, we'll counter with a solid nice guy, sunny and optimistic, successful as a governor that people will like and that will say, you know what, things are pretty calm. he's a catholic, he can debate the catholic mike pence. mike pence is an evangelical catholic, very, very ultra conservative. they personally agree on abortion so he sort of counters mike pence. so that's the upside. it's somebody hillary clinton obviously is comfortable with. those of us in this business have been hearing tim kaine's name bandied about really since last year of this was something that people long knew that they wanted to do. i think to the extent that they were dissuaded from doing the

thing they wanted to do. it was when there was concern that hillary clinton wouldn't have enough excitement on the ticket. so i think that was the idea between floating maybe elizabeth warren, maybe going with an ethnic pick that would excite the base. but i think when they saw what happened in cleveland quite frankly, i think they realized that they could do safe because the sort of scary vision that the republican party has put forward would actually maybe scare even people on the left into sticking with the team and hillary could get someone comfortable. now that's the good side. >> it's funny because jerry connelly just literally said that, steady as she goes. in some ways it's an emerging theme coming from the campaign. continue. >> yeah, basically they're saying, look, we are solid but we're also optimistic. tim kaine is a nice guy, he's sunny, he's optimistic. he'll say the purge is not happening just because the trump campaign tells you it is, right? everything is fine. i think on the other hand this pick does remind me of clinton

politics at sort of the level that people who are uncomfortable with clinton politics have a problem with, meaning they went with their guy's guy. what i've heard about the push, you've just had him on, terry mcauliffe is the person that has been probably the biggest booster of tim kaine. this gives terry mcauliffe incredible power. he could pick himself for that senate seat. he could pick anybody he wanted. it shows that they are still under the strong influence of the people who have been influencing the clintons for decades, and that is one of the biggest drags on hillary clinton. it's one of the biggest knocks on her. it's one of the reasons she's having a hard time reintroducing herself. and the second thing is that the pick reminded me of anything else of merrick garland. a pick that is on paper the right pick but is sort of tone deaf to the part of the party that is yearning most for change. and hillary clinton still needs to make the case that she can bring change. >> ruth, i want to get your response to all of that because i think that point there about

the sort of tone deaf to the part of the party yearning for change and also this question about an emerging campaign message of steady as she goes in the face of the dystopian vision being painted on the other side is one of the emerging themes here. we're going to take a quick break. you guys stay there, we'll be right back.

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we were ready for hillary because hillary is ready for us. hillary's ready for virginia.

hillary's ready to be president. hillary's ready to be our leader. hillary's ready to make history. and that's why we're ready for hillary. >> that is virginia senator tim kaine who we have just learned will be the vice presidential nominee for the democratic party and will be joining hillary clinton in a rally tomorrow in florida just a few days ahead of the beginning of the democratic national convention. joining me now, joy reid, ruth coniff. ruth, i want to get your response to those points joy made about what this pick sort of says and doesn't say. what do you think? >> well, i agree with pretty much everything she said. i think it's a nice way to put it to say that the clintons sort of actively chose somebody who is steady as you go in response to donald trump and that scary spectacle that we attended up until yesterday. on the other hand, i think what they really did is to say, you know, we just don't have to do much. this guy is going to scare people in our direction so we don't have to worry too much about the latino vote, for example, or the progressives.

and i think that might not work as well as they assume, because, you know, even just to take an example, obviously banking, all these fund-raisers. you had terry mcauliffe, chris matthews, this is a great way to see at a fund-raiser. the insider nature of this pick is going stick out to progressives. even on abortion rights, a social justice guy, opposing the death penalty in virginia, those are positives in a lot of ways. however, on abortion rights, for tim kaine to say i'm following the law, i don't like it personally, this is a real 1990s position for the democratic party. it is not the future of the democratic party. it is not where young women are or young people in general. having a more assertive, protection of women's reproductive rights is really where we're going, so in some ways it's very retrograde. >> that point in terms of the direction of this party on reproductive rights, that idea that this is sort of a throwback position. there used to be a whole category of democratic politicians who had that position, i personally oppose it but i support the rights of it

and i support roe v. wade. that is not the direction, i 100% agree. i also think that position for a man at the top of the ticket would probably be disqualifying or would push people over the edge. it is the unique space that hillary clinton occupies both as the possible first woman president and as an extremely forthright defender of reproductive choice and reproductive health and substantively engaged and progressive on the issue, that she can make this choice and sort of have that space, but i think you're totally right. and i think that's probably one of the things in fact inform previous vetting processes that made people shy away perhaps. joining me now, i want to bring in from tampa, nbc news correspondent kristen welker who's got a little bit more information. kristen, what have you got? >> potentially significant information, chris. progressives have been criticizing tim kaine over the fact that he supported the fast track authority for tpp, that big trade deal.

of course they oppose that. secretary clinton has said that she opposes that. i just got off the phone with a clinton campaign official who told me that during their discussions, secretary clinton was very clear that she opposes tpp. she said it doesn't meet her standards in terms of raising wages and protecting workers. according to this campaign official, tim kaine said that he would also oppose tpp. so that is going to tamp down some of the criticism that he's getting from progressives. i'm also told that the campaign is going to aggressively push back against this criticism, not surprisingly that he's been getting from progressives and point to some of the ratings that he has gotten from organizations like the brady campaign. he has a 100% rating on that, apparently. i'm getting new details also about the phone call tonight between secretary clinton and tim kaine. apparently as a part of this call, she framed the conversation in saying that what she is looking for in a vp pick is someone who is going to be a governing partner. that was sort of the broader theme of the conversation, as

she made him aware that he is in fact her vp pick. chris. >> kristen welker, thank you so much for that interesting news there on tpp. in some ways not surprising the ticket will have the position it has but it will be interesting in those first round of interviews how tim kaine handles those questions. amy klobuchar will join us right after this short break. with so many kinds of crab and the most crab dishes of the year. so dive into whatever floats your crab-loving boat. like crab lover's dream. crack open tender snow and king crab legs, and twirl creamy crab alfredo. or try the new alaska bairdi crab dinner. sweet and straight from the icy waters of alaska, you've gotta get it... to really get it. but it won't last forever, so hurry in. perfect driving record. until one of you clips a food truck. then your rates go through the roof. perfect. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident.

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about good progressive vice presidents, and tim kaine is going to be that progressive vice president. he headed up the democratic national committee. that means that you've got to bring a lot of people together from our party and he did a fantastic job. very close with president obama. and he is someone who has served as a mayor, as a governor and as a senator. only 20 people in the history of america have done that. the last thing i'd say is when you're in caucus with someone, i sit next to him at every lunch. you're really able to see someone when the cameras are off, when the reporters aren't in the room. he's an amazing speaker, stands up for what he believes in every single time. i think you're going to hear that this week from a lot of senators. and he has respect on the other side of the aisle. not necessarily because he has conservative beliefs. as far as i'm concerned he's a very strong progressive. but because he speaks the truth, he's a smart guy and people trust him. and i think he's just going to be a great vice presidential pick and a great vice president,

and i think you're going to love him. >> a lot of people have used the term "safe," calling this a safe choice, which is sort of an interesting word. what do you think -- what do you hear when you hear that word? do you agree with that characterization? does that mean something to you? >> not really. i think we've gotten to a place where everyone defines someone by a name, whether they're safe, whether they have this identity, whether that. i just know him as a person. i know him as someone who spent time as a missionary, someone who learned spanish to the point where he speaks it fluently, someone who cares about people. he is nice to people in the senate. that sounds like a small thing, not always a small thing when you're in politics these days. and he is -- his wife is a very well respected person, expert in education, so he brings that strength with ann. he has been the governor of a really difficult state in terms of red, blue and those kinds of political divides.

and really did a great job as governor, along with his predecessors, senator warner, in terms of bringing virginia into a high-tech state, high education state. and i think these are exciting things for our country. >> so i want to ask you about the senate. you guys are fighting for a majority right now. you're trying to get to -- trying to get to 50 senate seats if you can do it and also elect obviously hillary clinton and tim kaine, who would be the tie-breaking vote. there is now set up one year into the possible first year of hillary clinton's first term a hugely important special election in the state of virginia for that senate seat. is there something worrisome to you about taking away a senate seat that could be there for a very long time and now putting it into play, putting it at risk? >> you know, you always take those gambles no matter who you put in, but i think what secretary clinton was looking

for here was who does she think could govern, who can she work with, who's someone who's going to have the respect. a lot of times the vice president, i know this from former vice president mondale, certainly from vice president biden, the vice president works with congress extensively to get that important agenda done. in hillary's case, all of the things she wants to do from student loans to the minimum wage to making sure we get immigration reform done, you want a strong vice president that has the respect the democrats, republicans and able to get bills through congress. i can't think of anyone better than tim kaine for that. >> senator amy klobuchar of the great state of minnesota, thanks for your time tonight, really appreciate it. >> i would also note, one more thing to note is that he was born in st. paul, minnesota. that is a little fact not yet revealed about tim kaine. and since we are the state where moms bounce their babies on their knees and say one day you can grow up to be vice president, this is part of our heritage now.

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i want to bring to the conversation my good friend, rick pearlstein, chronicler of the conservative movement. rick, you've written so much about the sort of divergent natures and sort of ins and outs of these two coalition in american life, the republican and democratic party. i'm curious your response to tim kaine in terms of the trajectory of where the democratic party and democratic coalition is at this moment. >> right. i think it's interesting that hillary clinton, and we've known this about her, when this political trouble, when in moments of political drama, her instinct is often to dive for the so-called center and moderation. and tim kaine is, you know, a southern senator, former governor, much like bill clinton was in 1992. now that being said, what it means to be in the center of the democratic party means that you're more liberal than, say, bill clinton was in 1992. but i think it sets up attention with this drama in the

democratic party going to the convention, you know, is hillary going to honor the energy of the progressive grassroots or is she going to stick with the tried and true and the washington insiders. i think it sets up a real tension and perhaps a battle to come. >> that instinct is something you've written about so well. there's an entire generation of democratic politicians who spent their whole career watching people get destroyed from the right. >> that's right. >> deeply embedded in their political instincts. >> that's right. and it's almost subcortical. bill clinton was a guy in 1980 who lost his governorship on the reagan coattails. lots of these guys are. evan bye, joe lieberman. with the democratic party poised, this sounds like such a cliche, poised between the past and the future, maybe tim kaine will prove himself an acolyte of

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arguably one of the biggest political news days we've had yet this campaign, we now know all four names that will be on the ticket. on the democratic side it will be hillary clinton and tim kaine. we'll be back in just a bit. i love that my shop is part of the morning ritual around here. people rely on that first cup

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the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. anything going on? i was taking a nap. >> no, not a whole lot. it was a pretty chill day. >> pretty chill day? maddow sho right now. >> thanks to you at home for joining us. if you go now to trumppence.com, it's still some web site someone is still trying to sell today. do you want to see clint clintonkaine.com? come on. yes! hillary potter. and there's